Children, Women Killed As 10 Bogies Went Off Railway In Pakistan

Not less than 30 persons including children and women killed on Sunday when nearly 10 bogies of Hazara Express train went off track in the southern Pakistan city of Sindh.

Local authorities said at least 30 people were killed and over 100 persons injured in the train crash raising new questions about train safety in the country after several similar recent incidents.

It would be recalled that 65 people were killed when two trains collided in the same province the accident took place in 2021. Also, a gas explosion and fire on a train in Punjab province killed over 70 people in 2019.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah visited the train accident site and inspected the derailed bogies of Hazara Express train.

Ten coaches of a Rawalpindi-bound Hazara Express train derailed and some overturned, near the Pakistani town of Nawabshah, trapping many passengers, said senior railway officer Mahmoodur Rehman Lakho.

Videos showed rescue teams extracting women, children and elderly passengers from the overturned train.

The accident occurred about 275 kilometers away from Karachi while the train was moving to Havellian from Karachi.

The train operations to and from the interior districts of Sindh were suspended after the train crash, which is considered to cause major material cost to repair.

Officials said the Hazara Express train was on its way from Karachi to Rawalpindi when the train derailed near Sahara Railway Station.

Faiz Muhammad Mari, a regional health official, said the death toll was likely to rise because of the severity of injuries.

Pakistan’s railway minister, Khawaja Saad Rafique, reporsaid the Hazara Express train with hundreds of passengers aboard had been running at a relatively slow speed of 28 mph when it crashed near Nawabshah city in Sindh, Pakistan’s second-most-populous province.

“It could be a technical fault, or it could be an act of sabotage,” said Rafique, adding that an investigation is underway.

Officials said several children were among the injured, and photos from the scene showed overturned and mangled passenger cars. Rescuers used heavy machinery to access sections of the train that suffered particularly severe damage.